Eating Paint
by MarshmellowDragon
Summary: Only one can come out on top. Shinigami-sama decides that all everyone needs to relax is some good, harmless and completely peaceful paintball.


"Just…get it over with." Kid muttered, fists clenched shut and eyes refusing to meet those of the woman in front of him. Useless. He was utterly useless as a shinigami. Oh his honorable father would be so _disappointed_ in him!

"Rid the land of the filth that is myself!" He all but screamed. "Finish the job!" It was only right that the trash be taken out.

Nygus cocked her gun, and grinned sinisterly beneath her bandages; there was a hint of yellow in her eyes. It was practically a point blank shot. Impossible to miss.

"If that's what you want, Kid-kun…" If the frantic nodding was any clue, yes, it was what he wanted.

Click went the trigger. There was a dull thud as the projectile collided with his chest.

And then…

"Oh thank you Nygus-sensei! Thank you! They're perfectly aligned!" And indeed they were. The more recent blob of silver paint on the left of Kid's chest was the perfect twin to the one on the right side.

"No problem." She deadpanned as Kid skipped (_skipped!_) off in the direction of the dead box.

Kids these days. Couldn't play a decent game of paintball.

* * *

Mifune wasn't exactly surprised to find that he was the second one to the dead box. Years of Mafia dons had taught him to dodge gunfire with the same ease that he swung a sword. Weapon in hand, he could usually deflect it if push came to shove.

But this…this…!

"Kim-san doesn't love meeeeee!" Wailed the other occupant of the enclosure, fingers fisted in his rather distinctive hairstyle. Staring was impolite, but Mifune found it difficult to keep his eyes from the massive swathe of pink paint adorning Ox Ford's discarded armor.

And didn't that explain everything?

The wailing continued on, with the student oblivious to the professor-in-training. Minutes became more minutes, and the samurai found his patience wearing thin as his boredom increased. Finally, he coughed.

"Ah! Mifune-sensei! You're out too?" Ox Ford looked surprised, as he should have well been. _No_, the blond wanted to say, _I'm not out, I'm just joking, see? I've only come to gloat at you!_ But it would be cruel to take out his anger on one of his students, so instead the samurai settled for nodding his head.

"Me too." No, really? "My darling angel shot me." The boy sulked. "And after I volunteered to protect her!" When no sympathy came forth from Mifune, the boy looked up, taking in the purple dots beading the older man's back.

"Purple paint?" Ox wondered. "Who had purple?"

Mifune wished the silence could stay. He really did. But he could feel the faint heat of a blush on his cheeks, and knew that it would be better to just get this over with.

"Angela." The samurai finally answered. "Angela has purple."

* * *

Soul wasn't taking any chances. None. To lose was to forfeit his claim to cool. And that was something he would not, could not tolerate.

The scythe repeated this to himself as he trained his gun on Maka. The blonde would kick his ass if he gave her the chance, so meister or no, she had to go. Soul paused a second to congratulate himself on the rhyme.

And that second was his downfall.

"DIVINE PUNISHMENT!" Roared a voice from the treetops, and the weapon had just enough time for his brain to make the _oh __**shit**_ connection before he was tackled to the ground by a rather irate looking Deathscythe.

This wasn't gonna be pretty.

"Evans!" Spirit Albarn accused as he shook the boy, "You were trying to shoot my Maka-chan, weren't you! WEREN'T YOU!"

"What the hell old man!" He had just enough air in his lungs to yell back. "It's paintball! I wasn't gonna actually hurt her!"

"Betrayer!" The father screamed. "Judas! Brutus!" Oh god. He was foaming at the mouth. "Benedict! TOKYO ROSE!"

History class finally kicked in. "Hey!" Soul protested. "That last one's a girl and-"

"Thank you Papa." Hell. Someone hated him. Or his rhyming. Soul only barely held back a sigh. From behind him, Maka smiled sweetly. Too sweetly.

"Maka-chan! Papa is here to protect you! Come and let us conquer everything together as father and daughter!" His meister's smile didn't waver, even as her father leapt to wrap her in a bear-hug.

And suddenly Deathscythe's face was covered in green.

"No, that's okay Papa." She was still grinning and it was getting _creepy_. "I don't want help from swine like you."

"Makaaaaa-"

"_**Bye**_ Papa." With poorly disguised sniffles, the man lurched towards the dead box, hands on his head and stumbling into trees the whole way.

"Thanks." Soul breathed, climbing back to his feet. "I'm just glad he forgot to actually-" Bang. A spot of green appeared in the dead center of his chest. "-shoot me."

A moment passed.

"I hate you."

"Save me some fries~!" Followed him all the way off the field.

* * *

Kilik hated dissection days in class. Since his partners were linked to the raw elements, he was particularly attuned to the suffering of the living and really couldn't help it that he got sick every time and had to be escorted out by an amused classmate. It really didn't help that in Stein's class, _every_day was a dissection day.

He hoped that his paintball, planted straight above Stein's heart, accurately conveyed this fact.

"Stein!" Marie was quick to fire in retaliation, sending a barrage of yellow into the tree canopies. Judging by the lack of cursing that followed, she'd missed. The murderer was still out there. But that wasn't important now. Now-

"Stein!" She wailed again, grabbing him by the shoulders and shaking with all her strength. "Stein, speak to me! Say something! _Anything_!"

"Hm." Noted Stein as the red paint dripped down his front.

"Oh Shinigami…" She breathed. "You can't speak." Her palms cupped his face, tears welling in her eyes. The scientist began to respond, but didn't get very far as the death scythe held a finger over the part of his mask covering his mouth.

"Hush. Don't waste your strength trying. It'll be okay. We can stay together." A rustle from the treetops caught the woman's attention, and she sighed, clutching her gun to her chest. There was no time.

"Yea, noise! Then I'll be brief! O happy dagger!" Marie raised her gun to her chest. "This is thy sheath; there rust and let me die!" And so did the blonde's yellow paintballs find a home on the front of her armor. With a flourish, she collapsed into Stein's chest, gun falling to the forest floor in a [dramatic] clatter.

"Marie," Stein questioned after a while of silence, "Did you just-?"

"I always wanted to do that." She smiled, grin shining with the brilliance of the sun.

"Hm." Stein glanced around with both his eyes and his soul. Kilik had left. No one else was around.

So he laughed.

* * *

_I love paintball. I suck at it, but I still love it. Haven't been able to play recently though. Next time, we check up on Black Star and a few others. (I'd say who, but a certain someone would be jealous if his spotlight was stolen I think…)_

_So as you probably figured out, this is anime continuity, since it gave me a slightly bigger cast of characters to work with. Haha, I didn't mean for it to end on such a sappy note. Stein and Marie do that to me?_

_For Marie's line, proper credit goes to our dear buddy Will, in act 5 scene 3 of _Romeo and Juliet. _For everything else [there's mastercard] the proper owners are definitely not myself._


End file.
